There Are Things That Cannot be Changed
by max'sgirl13
Summary: This is the history of the enemy in the Uglies Series. This is the story of McKenzie Cable, how she was turned into a Special unwillingly, and all that would follow becuase of it. These are the things that can't be changed, and what resulted because of it
1. Informed Consent

Disclaimer: I do not own Uglies.

McKenzie woke up to a day like any other, not knowing that it would end quite abnormally.

Today was just a normal day for her. She got up, went to her classes, blah, blah, blah. After her classes she went to see her friend Sasha, who loaded her with the latest gossip about teachers, their fellow uglies, and the supposed doings of new pretties in New Pretty Town. Honestly, she didn't care. She just wanted to get out to the Ruins and try her new hoverboarding trick. When she got to her dorm room, though, someone was waiting for her. It was a middle pretty, a doctor by the looks of him.

"Hello McKenzie," he said. "How was your day?"

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Sorry to bust in," he said, "but I have an offer to make to you. We would like for you to come with us, for we have an opportunity for you."

"What opportunity?"

"The opportunity to make you pretty early."

"Pretty early?" said McKenzie, confused. "I thought the operation only worked at sixteen."

"We have been able to change a few of the aspects of the surgery. We are 98 percent sure it will work, but we need a willing test subject. We believe, based on your measurements, that you will be the most likely to work."

McKenzie couldn't believe what she was hearing. A pretty at 15? Why not?

"Sounds great," she said.

"Wonderful," said the doctor. "We would prefer that you keep this information to yourself. Good evening. Oh, and I'm Dr. Blanch, by the way."

McKenzie daydreamed about her new life in New Pretty Town until curfew. The next day, the doctors took her to the hospital. They put her under for the surgery. The last thing McKenzie remembered before blacking out was the smiling face of Dr. Blanch. But his smile seemed almost smug…

Hours later, McKenzie woke up in a padded cell.

"Dr. Blanch? Where are you? Why am I in here?" Her voice sounded different. Not sweet, like a new pretty's voice. It was…sharp, grinding. Like a razor.

McKenzie looked in the mirror in her cell, and gasped in horror. Staring back at her was a face with wolf like features, harsh, and sharp. A cruel pretty.

"What did you do to me?"


	2. Welcome to Special Circumstances

Disclaimer: I do not own Uglies.

McKenzie stared at her reflection, still in shock.

_What did they do to me? _She thought. _What am I? _

"You're finally awake," said an automated voice in the room. McKenzie looked around for the source, but she couldn't find it. "How do you feel?"

"Doctor Blanch!" screamed McKenzie. "You are a liar, a fraud, and a crazy man! What did you do to me? I thought you were going to make me pretty!"

"I apologize," said the automated voice, which was being used by Doctor Blanch. "This surgery was too important to disclose to an ugly. We spoke to your parents and dorm moderator, and they agreed, as long as you did too."

"I agreed to become pretty, not for you to turn me into a…a…" McKenzie fumbled for the right word. What had they turned her into?

"I believe the word that you require would be Special," said Doctor Blanch.

"I think freaky would be a better description," she said.

"No, not special. A Special. A human being with augmented muscles and senses who works for the city's Special Circumstances," said Doctor Blanch.

"A Special?" said McKenzie. "I thought they were rumors."

"No, McKenzie. Specials exist; they just don't show themselves unless they need to."

A Special. McKenzie looked at herself all over. She could see the muscles in her arm. She could see that she was strong. And maybe that cruel beauty face of hers wasn't that bad either. But one question still lingered in her mind.

"Why did you need to turn me into a Special, then?"

"McKenzie, you are not the normal kind of Special. The surgical procedure for your changing was altered, so your surgery was experimental."

"At least you were somewhat truthful," McKenzie muttered under her breath.

"You are a new type of Special. A special Special," said the Doctor. "All of the Specials working for Special Circumstances are going to receive the new surgery. Now that yours is finished, we have some options to give you."

"Options for what?"

"For your new lifestyle."

5 minutes later, McKenzie and Doctor Blanch sat inside the doctor's office. McKenzie was fully dressed and looking much more pleasant than before. But with them in the room was a Special by the name of Doctor Lakson.

"Since we have already altered your body, it is pointless to send you back to Uglyville," said Dr. Lakson. "So, you have two options. One, you can keep your current form, and we would be pleased to have you join us at Special Circumstances."

"Or, we can despecialize you and send you to New Pretty Town," said Doctor Blanch. "But I would strongly recommend staying a Special."

"Why?" asked McKenzie.

"Well, it would save us having to do another surgery on you," said Doctor Blanch. "But there are other reasons. Reasons that we can't tell you unless you accept a position as a Special."

"Besides, it would be such a waste," said Dr. Lakson.

"A waste? Why?" said McKenzie.

"Because Special Circumstances was already going to consult with you about joining us. You see, McKenzie, we at Special Circumstances don't just recruit anyone. It's the tricky uglies, and the ones that stay tricky as pretties, that we employ. And of the tricky uglies your age, you are the cream of the crop. So please, consider joining us."

"We'll leave you alone to decide," said Dr. Blanch. He and Dr. Lakson walked out of the room. "Ping us with your decision."

McKenzie sat, pondering her choices. Did she want to stay Special? All her friends became pretties, and they all became lazy and stupid. Was that the life she wanted? Since she can avoid it, should she take the opportunity? After 5 minutes, she made up her mind. She took her interface ring out of her pocket.

"Message to Dr. Blanch." The doctor immediately picked up.

"Well?"

"I'll stay Special."

"Thank you, McKenzie. Come out to the front entrance."

When McKenzie reached the front, Drs. Lakson and Blanch were waiting for her.

"Dr. Lakson will take you to Headquarters from here. Good luck, McKenzie," said doctor Blanch. He smiled politely at her, and retreated into the hospital.

"Hop in, McKenzie," said Dr. Lakson. "I have much to talk to you about."

On the ride to the Special Circumstances Headquarters, Dr. Lakson briefed McKenzie on the basics of being a Special, what her job will be, and the benefits of the job. She also told her about the bubblehead surgery. But her put more emphasis on the supposed good of it. And McKenzie believed all of it. She was beginning to like all of this a lot better.

_So I am different from my pretty friends _she thought. _No, I'm not just different. I'm…better. _

"You will work as a doctor, and we will train you to do the surgery. From now on, everyone will address you as Doctor. Here we are," said Dr. Lakson. The hovercar landed in front of a building surrounded by security devices. McKenzie opened the door and stepped out. Dr. Lakson took her up to a door, which opened up to a long, white hallway.

Dr. Lakson looked at her and smiled.

"Welcome to the Special Circumstances Headquarters, Dr. Cable."


	3. My Icy Making Career

Disclaimer: I do not own Uglies.

Hey, to all you readers, I made a little change in the story. Dr. Lakson is now a girl. You'll see why soon.

**-Max**

**Doctor Lakson's P.O.V. **

I watched the expressions that crossed the child McKenzie's face. Excitement, pride, and maybe a little smugness. This was the typical dance of emotions that crossed a new Special's face when his or her job begins. I had seen it several times, even though I was only 24 and had been here for 3 years.

"You will report to sublevel J, room 327 for your training," I had said to her. "Good luck, McKenzie Cable."

"Thank you," McKenzie had replied. She had almost skipped into the building. I watched her run to the nearest elevator and rush in.

I had chuckled. Yes, we had definitely found our girl.

The thing is, the surgery that we gave McKenzie – perhaps I should call her Dr. Cable now – the surgery we did on Dr. Cable involved a new structure in her brain. The structure – or the Special Lesions, as we like to call them – manipulated previous thoughts and made the Special change their outlook on their past. Every Special had gotten the new surgery eventually. Even I had gotten it.

Dr. Cable was, as I had suspected, a natural. She performed the surgery with ease, and always stayed on task. She moved up through the ranking with ease.

I was not surprised when, 4 years after Dr. Cable joined Special Circumstances, Dr. Cable took charge. Since I had had a hand in her training, I was, in a sense, her right hand man, or should I say woman? We became good friends, and in private, I called her McKenzie and she called me Maxamilla.

She was very supportive when the day came that I married Colin Feaster, one of our colleagues. My life with Colin was wonderful, and the way we acted with each other, you'd think we were love stricken new pretties. Everything was wonderful.

Until the day that **she** came.


	4. Theories Confirmed

Disclaimer: I do not own Uglies.

"_Zane…was once of help to me…He was very forthcoming about David and the Smoke, that time he didn't run away." _

Dr. Cable's POV

I sat at my desk, waiting for them. How long would it take for them to get him here? The seconds ticked by. Finally, my skintenna pinged.

"Dr. Cable?" It was Maxmilla Feaster. "We have him here, in interrogation room 5." I smiled.

"Good work, Maxmilla. Wait for me there."

I walked out of her office, and proceeded to the interrogation room. At last, we were finally getting somewhere. Ever since those two doctors – what were their names? Maddy and Az, I think. Well, ever since they ran off, uglies had been disappearing like rabbits. Maybe now, we can figure out where they're going. But I had a theory on where they were.

I entered the interrogation room. In there was an ugly about 15 years old. He looked confused, but still frightened. Perfect. That way, we would get more out of him.

"Hello Zane," I said. I sat down at the table with him. "My name is Dr. Cable. I've been wanting to meet you for some time now."

"What is it that you want?" he asked. He tried to sound tough, but I could still sense the fear in him. "What is this place?"

"This is Special Circumstances," I said. "And I have a few questions for you, about some of your friends that disappeared 2 days ago."

"Friends?" said Zane, trying to sound confused.

"Yes," I said. "A group of uglies from your dorm went missing along with several supply containers from the Uglyville stock. Perhaps you can tell us where your friends went."

"I don't know anything about that," said Zane. He was lying. I smiled cruelly.

"Zane, before we continue, I should inform you that this room is wired with lie detectors. We both know that that isn't the truth. Now tell me what you know."

"Why should I?" he said.

"I'll tell you why," I said. I began to stand up, my face hardening into an evil sneer, and my words sounding intimidating. "If you do not tell us everything you know about where your friends went, then you will never become pretty. You will be turned into one of us. A Special."

Zane face was so full of fear you would think he had seen a ghost. Then he broke down.

"Okay, I tell you everything!" he yelled. "They went to the Smoke!"

I smiled. My theory was confirmed. The Smoke was real.

"They left with this guy named David," he said. There was another theory confirmed. "He's not from the city, or any other city. He grew up in the wild."

"Thank you, Zane." I sat down again. "Now, were you planning to leave too?"

"I was," he said. "But I chickened out. So did my other friend, Shay."

"Is that so? Well, I'm certainly glad you stayed, Zane. That is all I need from you. Thank you." I walked out of the interrogation room. Well, now we were getting somewhere.

A Few Months Later

3rd person.

Dr. Cable was at her desk once again, and she received a ping. It was from Colin Feaster.

"Dr. Cable? Take a look at the interface feed. It look's like our ugly Shay has a new friend."


	5. The Key

Disclaimer: I do not own Uglies.

Dr. Cable's POV

For the next few weeks, I watched Shay. It seemed that she was becoming good friends with this girl. The girl's name was Tally, Tally Youngblood. She had never been one of the extremely tricky uglies, but she pulled a few tricks here and there. She desperately wanted to be pretty, I could tell by the way she talked to Shay. He ugly name was Squint. And she had the same birthday as Shay.

I had some special plans for Shay when she turned pretty. She knew too much about the Smoke, so I had developed some super lesions just for her. If all went as planned, she would remember nothing from the Smoke at all. They weren't perfect, but I hoped that I would have them perfected by September. All was going to plan.

But then came the day when everything would change.

I was sitting in my office the day I got the ping. It was from one of my sub commanders, and consisted of only 3 words.

"_Boss? Shay's gone." _

I closed my eyes as the fury raged inside of me. Gone! After all our work, she had slipped away! But that afternoon, I had an idea. I pinged Colin Feaster.

"Dr. Cable? What do you need?" he asked.

"Where is Tally Youngblood?" I asked in my grating voice.

"Youngblood? She's at the hospital. It's her 16th birthday," said Colin.

"I know how we can get Shay back. Bring Tally to headquarters."

"Do you think you can get her to talk? She may not know anything," said Colin.

I thought for a moment, and then I remembered how eager Tally was to become pretty.

"Oh, I think I can persuade her."


	6. Waiting For Tally

Disclaimer: I don not own Uglies.

General POV

Dr. Cable walked out of the interrogation room. She had a cruel smirk on her face, but it was a satisfied, cruel smirk. She had just met with Tally Youngblood. And Tally was now on her way to the Smoke.

She was very pleased right then. The Help-Us-or-You-Don't-Turn ultimatum had worked well. Tally had been scared out of her wits. Now all she had to do was wait for the tracker to activate. She had the tracker's monitor up on her office wallscreen all the time. Now all she had to do was wait.

Days passed. Still no signal. Tally was reaching the end of her time. Dr. Cable was getting suspicious, but she shoved those beside.

"Maybe she ditched on us," Maxamilla Feaster had suggested one day, but Dr. Cable shot down the idea.

"She'll do it. She wants to be pretty. It'll happen," the doctor had said. And she was right.

In good time, the tracker finally activated. Dr. Cable sighed with relief. Finally, they would find the Smoke. She pinged Colin Feaster.

"We've located the Smoke. Gather 2 dozen hovercars and enough agents to fill them."

The hovercars set out for the Smoke. In the morning, they reached the location the tracker deemed as the Smoke. The Specials attacked with brutality, grabbing every Smokey in site. But before they had attacked, Dr. Cable had given this order:

"If you find Tally, un-cuff her and bring her to me. If you find an unidentified ugly, sedate him immediately, then take him back to the city. The boy's name is David."


	7. Seige of the Smoke

Disclaimer: I do not own Uglies.

Dr. Cable's POV

Tally walked out of the room. If you could call it a room, for the buildings in the Smoke were very poorly built.

I was smiling ear to ear. We finally had the Smokies, bound and captured, and were shipping them off to various cities. But we still had not found David.

I had big plans for David. Once we captured him, he would immediately go under the knife. But to make sure he blends in, I was going to test my newest invention on him and his parents. I had been working on erasing memories from a person's mind for some time now, along with replacing the memories with artificial ones, and I needed a test subject. My test subjects would be David and his parents. I would also use my super lesions on all of them too.

One of the Specials burst in, interrupting my thoughts.

"Youngblood's on the loose!" she yelled at me. I didn't hesitate a second. Me and a dozen other Specials got into hovercars and went after her. We followed her into the woods, but she obviously knew the way better then we did. Then she disappeared.

"Crap!" I yelled. "We lost her!"

"Maybe not, Boss," said Colin. "Can you smell that?"

I took a good sniff. Beneath all the smells of the forest, I could smell an unwashed human. I followed my nose all the way to a home in the rocks. We burst in to the home, and my lips curled into a smile. Maddy and Az were in the home, startled by our abrupt entrance. We seized the two of them, and Maddy gave me a hateful look.

"Nice to see you again, Maddy," I said with razors in my voice.

"Same to you, McKenzie," Maddy replied coldly.

"Take these two back to the city," I said to Colin. "Keep them at headquarters until I get there." Colin nodded, and took them to a hovercar. When they were gone, I took a nanotech grenade, and threw it at the home. It exploded, and the house was torn to pieces. I smiled with satisfaction. Then I went back to the Smoke, which was emptied of all Smokies.

"Burn the city," I said. The Smoke was turned into a living bonfire in a matter of minutes.

"Time to go," I said. The Specials withdrew from the burning ruins, and we left for the city. I was disappointed that we had not found David, but we had the Smokies in our clutches. For me, that was enough.

But where had Tally disappeared to?


	8. Cable's Evil Plans

Disclaimer: I do not own Uglies.

Colin Feaster's POV

If you were to ask my opinion, I think Dr. Cable's going a little nutty. She's gotten a little to in to this taking down the Smoke thing. But don't tell her that. The thing's she can do and would do would scare anyone, even a Special.

Take the Smokies, for instance. When they brought them back to headquarters, Dr. Cable was so giddy that you'd thing she chugged a whole bottle of wine without taking a breath. She was practically dancing for joy. Then she immediately took this one Smokey girl under the knife. Shay, I think her name is. Anyway, Dr. Cable made up these super lesions for Shay, and used them in her operation. They scar most of the temporal lobe*! Honestly, I was surprised that the girl wasn't completely crazy when she woke up!

Anyway, these lesions don't only just scar more areas of her mind, they're impossible to remove completely. Even the city's lesion removal pills won't do the job. You need special surgery to do the job. But that's not my problem. That's not even the reason I thing the Doc is loopy.

Yesterday, Cable took that Az person into surgery and killed him with her mind erasing techniques. You should've seen the look on his wife's face when Cable went in and said that he'd croaked! I thought she'd go mental! She didn't even cry. Then Cable gave her this 'You'll be next' threat.

I don't know what will happen next. Cable's still nuts over loosing David and Tally. But I know one thing. I don't want to get in the doctor's way.

*For those of you non-neurology buffs, the temporal lobe is the part of the brain responsible for memory. a couple other things, but its key function is memory.


	9. So Much Stress

Disclaimer: I do not own Uglies.

Dr. Cable's POV

I was angry. No, angry wasn't the word for it, but livid was. Absolutely livid, that's right.

One moment, I was interrogating Shay, the next, Tally and that boy (David, I assume) knocked me out. When I finally came about. I was on the roof of Headquarters, and the fugitives, along with a fleet of Special Circumstances hovercars, were long gone.

I can't believe an Ugly outsmarted me. A random! A freak. Because that was what they were. Freaks. Come to think of it, even pretties were freaks. And so were a lot of Specials. I am the one who fits! I should be put in charge of the city! I should be in charge of this city of freaks! Me! Me! Me!

When I got back to my office, I noticed that someone had been through my files. Then I saw that my interface ring was gone. That woman! I punched a hole in the wall. Then Maxamilla came in.

"Easy does it, Boss," she said. "We lost them."

I let out a scream. Why? Everything was going perfectly to plan. Oh well. At least we took care of the man. After my venting, I turned to Feaster.

"I want heavy guard on the borders, and Specials sent into the wild. Make sure those kids don't get back into the city without being noticed." I told her.

"Okay, Boss," she said. I turned my back, but she had more to say.

"Hey, McKenzie," said Maxamilla. "Are you okay? You've been a little crazy lately."

"I'm okay. It's just this job can be stressful. It's not easy being at the top of the line."

"Maybe you should take a break. I can take over for you."

I thought about it. A break wouldn't be that bad. "Sounds good," I said. "I'll go out for a week or 2."

2 Weeks Later

I was in my bed, having a few precious minutes left before I went to work. But then, my skintenna pinged, and I answered it.

"Boss? We have the girl," said Feaster. "She asked to be made pretty."

The Girl was what Feaster called Tally. It was always The Girl or She.

"Well, what are you waiting for?"

**Note: In the story, the interface ring is only used to hold files for Specials, so they can access them anywhere. **


End file.
